Video: Andre 3000 on T.I., Outkast, & Raising Cancer Awareness

Take in Andre 3000‘s music, film, and miscellaneous (Gillette-related) side hustles and you get a sense that he is one humble, soft-spoken individual. Whereas other artists forefront their masculinity/swag via gold and diamond flashiness and talk of bad b**ches, 3Stacks approaches the interview with the gentle confidence and calm of a king. Indeed, many of us have been watching the throne and wondering, Why the silence? Aside from the short and sporadic (but still precious) cameos on works by The Gorillaz, Frank Ocean, T.I., and… Gillette. Fuse recently sat with the denim jacket and skully-clad 3000 to break his silence.

In the interview, Andre proudly promotes his [former?] Outkast partner Big Boi‘s upcoming album Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors. He says, “[The album] comes out next month, and I’m proud of that dude, man, ’cause we started just two people, and I know how hard it is to write your own raps for a whole album… To do it all yourself, that’s pretty heavy.” Though it’s good to hear him support Big Boi, it hurt to hear Aquemini’s other half squash rumors that the two were reuniting for an Outkast comeback. On collaborations, Andre delves more into his track “Sorry” with T.I. which drops November 27th. He then goes on to say he feels blessed to be tapped by Frank Ocean, Drake, Lil’ Wayne, T.I. and the like! The irony there is that T.I.’s “Sorry,” Ocean’s “Pink Matter,” Drake’s “The Real Her,” Beyonce’s “Party” — none of these tracks would be what they are without him (Beyonce’s J.Cole substitution in the “Party” video made that pretty clear…). ‘Dre’s humility becomes overwhelming when he says, “I just wanna do good for them. I don’t want to mess up their songs.” (Is that a joke?) Finally, the interview concludes more about the rapper’s philanthropic endeavors with Gillette. He and the company are working together under the “Movember” campaign to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer. Always good to hear 3000’s voice–even if it’s not talking about an upcoming solo project.